Gurinder Chadha's first big score as a feature-film director was the charming,
innocuously fluffy cross-cultural comedy "Bend It Like Beckham," about a teenage
girl of Indian descent who lives in England, worships all-star footballer David
Beckham and wants to play soccer herself. For her follow-up, Chadha increased
the degree of difficulty and fabricated "Bride & Prejudice"  a colorful,
energetic and ultimately clunky update of Jane Austen's satirical novel Pride
and Prejudice, set in modern India, London and Los Angeles and crossed with
a Bollywood musical. There are numerous, outlandish song-and-dance numbers with
a bhangra bent, even as the film recapitulates the classic tale of a mother seeking
suitable husbands for her daughters. Chadha and her co-screenwriter Paul Mayeda
Berges turn Austen's heroine Elizabeth and the girl's wealthy suitor Mr. Darcy
into moralistic, ethnocentric Lalita, played by exquisitely lovely Indian movie
star Aishwarya Rai, and smug American hotel heir Will Darcy, played by a feckless
Martin Henderson. Rival suitors, from hapless to simply vile, make for trouble
and general silliness. "Bride & Prejudice" needed a fire in the furnace,
which Rai and Henderson don't ignite. With Naveen Andrews ("The English Patient," TV's "Lost")
as Darcy's pal Balraj, Alexis Bledel (TV's "Gilmore Girls") as Darcy's sister,
and pop star Ashanti as little more than a singing cameo.